Indivisibles say: the Bad Washington Privacy Act is still bad. Fix it or nix it!

The House Appropriations committee votes this week on weak, industry-backed Bad Washington Privacy Act (SB5062). Next week, the full House votes on it.

The current version of the bill doesn’t protect our privacy. Tell your state representatives: fix it or nix it.

How bad is the Bad Washington Privacy Act?

• It lets predatory corporations use, share, and sell your data without your consent — it’s opt-out, not opt-in.
• If companies violate the law and abuse your privacy, the “private right of action” that just got added doesn’t allow you to sue them for damages
• It doesn’t protect student or employee data at all, airlines and government agencies aren’t covered either, companies can disclose data to ICE without a warrant, and it’s got tons of other loopholes.
• Its pre-emption clause keeps cities and counties from passing stronger laws

For more on why the Bad Washington Privacy Act is so bad — and why it matters so much — check out Inside One State’s Fierce Battle Over Online Privacy and Former Republican state legislator Norma Smith op-ed , written with two progressive Indivisible activists.

The House Civil Rights & Judiciary committee had a chance to fix it at their executive session Friday. Before the vote, a half dozen Indivisible groups met with their legislators. Fifteen Indivisible groups sent a letter to the committee asking them to fix it or nix it. Indivisibles around the state phoned and emailed their legislators, telling them to fix it or nix it. Eight Indivisibles who hadn’t been allowed to testify at the hearing mailed our testimony to the committee, giving them an earful of the problems we saw in the bill.

Instead of listening to us, Chair Hansen introduced a ‘striker’ amendment making minor improvements without addressing any of the big issues. The committee advanced it on a straight party-line vote: Republicans voted to nix it, Democrats voted to move it forward.

So our message remains the same. Fix it — or nix it.

If you’d like to add your voice, let your state representatives know as well. Click here for a Take Action Network page that makes it easy to contact your representatives. It’s got a sample script if you want to use it, or just tell your legislators: “SB 5062, the Bad Washington Privacy Act is bad. Fix it or nix it.”

Here’s the letter Indivisibles sent the committee after the vote.

Mr. Chair, Ranking Member, and members of the committee,

As you know, we were very disappointed in Chair Hansen’s striker for SB 5062, the Bad Washington Privacy Act. While there were some improvements, it did not really address any of the four major areas we highlighted. The mess of a bill the Senate sent over will take a lot of work to fix. The striker made a bit of progress, but there’s a very long way to go in just two weeks.

So thanks to those of you who voted to nix it. Your votes will hopefully shatter the myth of ‘consensus’ around this bad bill. It’s a strong message that the bill will need to improve significantly to get bipartisan support.

We also thank those of you who voted ‘yes’ because you believe that you and your colleagues will invest the time and energy to fix it and pass a bill that addresses the issues we highlighted.

Those of you who voted ‘yes’ in the belief the bill doesn’t need additional fixing have not been listening to us. You also haven’t been listening to the communities who oppose it, or the experts. We encourage you to revisit your position before your next vote on this bill.

No matter how you voted, thank you for the time and energy you’ve been putting in on this as well as all the other legislation you’re considering. We look forward to continuing to work with all of you over the next two weeks as the bill heads to the floor.

The best outcome is still strong legislation this session that meaningfully protects Washingtonians.

Here are the key areas that still need to be addressed:

• Make it fully opt-in
• Strengthen the private right of action by allowing people to seek damages.
• Remove the pre-emption clause
• Remove the loopholes, exemptions, and definitional problems that neuter enforcement

One way to fix SB 5062 is to adopt the People’s Privacy Act (HB 1433) as a striker. The People’s Privacy Act has bipartisan sponsorship and broad support from dozens of civil liberties, civil rights, immigrant rights and grassroots organizations. Or, the current SB 5062 text can be amended.

The worst outcome is still a bad bill, where your constituents trust your assurances that their data is protected when in reality it is still ripe for abuse by predatory corporations and governmental agencies like ICE.

The Bad Washington Privacy Act is still bad, so our message remains the same. Fix it, or nix it.

Indivisible Whidbey
Indivisible Washington’s 8th District
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Wallingford Indivisible
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Seattle Indivisible
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